"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used
by mankind" -- Rudyard Kipling

Listen closely. Read between the lines. You are
being convinced, slowly and deliberately that vitamin supplements are
dangerous and that pharmaceutical drugs are always your best bet.

Perhaps you've become aware of this upside-down
logic. If not, I offer you a few examples of how the masses are being
systematically brain-washed. Keep these examples in mind , it won't be
long before you're noticing some yourself.

Recently ABC News ran a rather lengthy piece about
how "dangerous" certain common herbal supplements are. The case in point
was a woman who'd had a kidney transplant. She took an herbal supplement
containing the age-old Black Cohosh root and whammo! She became deathly
ill. What ABC didn't discuss was that people who've had an organ transplant
have compromised systems that even too much water or table salt plays
havoc with. Never mind that. The not -so-subtle point the network was
making was this: Be afraid, be very afraid of anything the pharmaceutical
companies don't make a profit from!

This past week The Wall Street Journal screamed
out headlines: "Watch Out For Serious Interactions When Taking Drugs,
Herbs".

The story reported " a wave of recent studies is
sparking concern about the dangers of taking herbal supplements…" The
article went on to list the dangers of combining common herbal supplements
with prescription drugs. Instead of pointing out that pharmaceuticals
cause the deaths each year of over 100,000 people, media attention focuses
on the "dangers" of herbs people have been taking to help heal their bodies
for centuries.

What is perhaps most telling about why these types
of stories are hitting print and broadcast with greater frequency is simply
this: Vitamins and herbal supplements bring in well over $20 billion dollars
a year. The drug companies want a piece of the action. Therefore, expect
to see more and more attention focused on the "danger"' of vitamins. The
next logical step will be the prescribing of these natural substances
to better "protect" the consumer. Once this happens, as it has in several
other countries, what were once easily-available non-prescription, age-old
healing substances like Ginko Biloba or St. John's Wort or even Vitamin
C will then become available only if a doctor prescribes them. Since the
vast majority of medical doctors in the United States hold little store
by the less-invasive natural remedies this does not bode well for those
of us who subscribe to the belief that the body can and will heal itself
if given the right nutritional support.

The Wall Street Journal story said "the growing
interest in herb-drug interactions comes as more Americans are popping
herbal medications." "Popping."

That's an interesting choice of words. In an era
where we are encouraged to take a pill ("pop" one, if you will) for everything
from heartburn ("esophageal reflux disease") to shyness ("social anxiety
disorder") to normal childhood energy levels ("attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder") it seems odd that taking SUPPLEMENTS should be referred to
as "popping." Why is it that term is never used to describe the taking
of prescription drugs?

Bayer (the pharmaceutical company now in the midst
of trying to settle unprecedented numbers of wildly expensive lawsuits
over deaths related to its cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol) now labels
its (potentially toxic) antibiotic Cipro with cautions against pairing
the drug with calcium-fortified orange juice! It would seem the public
would be better served all around with honest assessments of the dangers
inherent in these drugs themselves- with or without the juice chaser!

While anything paired with anything (grapefruit
juice and certain heart medications) can be dangerous, the big picture
is that all of a sudden "studies" showing the danger of things like Vitamin
C (recently debunked) and Ginseng are substantively disingenuous.

What is at the core of these misleading "studies"
and the media frenzies that inevitably follow is a commission established
40 years ago by the World Health Organization to set "upper limits" of
supplements. In other words a world-wide goon squad is now working on
determining just how much Vitamin C you should be allowed to take. The
Codex Alimentarius gang isn't working on getting the word out about how
damaging (FDA approved!) food additives like Aspartame and MSG are…no!
Neither are they alerting consumers to the horrific side effects of mercury-containing
vaccines, or the very real possibility of having a stroke while taking
Hormone Replacement Therapy. Codex is working on making sure you won't
have access to too much Vitamin C…without a prescription.

The Dear Abby advice column (now written by Jeanne
Philips, daughter of the late columnist Abigail Van Buren) today printed
a letter from a reader (uh huh) that went like this:

"Dear Abby, Our marriage was wonderful until my
wife cut back on her Premarin…now her libido is shot…. I'm really suffering…is
there an alternative to splitting up?"

It was signed: "Desperate in Arizona" Dear Abby,
like Peter Jennings, like countless other media sock puppets are nothing
more than mouthpieces for a highly-propagandizing pharmaceutical industry.
This wasn't even a disguised attempt at spin- damage control for a drug
(manufactured from PRE(gnant) MA(re) u RIN(e). That's right , the drug
Premarin ( a hormone replacement drug in a class of drugs shown to cause
serious risk of stroke in menopausal women) is in fact made from horse
urine.

The reason this little "letter" made it into an
advice column with wide readership? It's elementary. Recently the drug
companies suffered a major setback when news of the life-threatening side
effects associated with HRT came out.

You may also have seen similar damage control stories
on the network news which purported to "debunk" studies showing dangers
of suicide and suicide ideation among those who take antidepressants.

It's all about protecting the billions the drug
giants make by lying to consumers. It starts to make even more sense when
you read about President George Bush's initiative to "screen" Americans
for mental illness. Called New Frontiers, the object of the game here
is to give the pharmaceutical companies more market share. In a most unholy
political-pharmaceutical alliance, the drug companies have been highly-connected
to the Bush family for 3 generations. The elder Bush served on the board
of Eli Lily and President Bush appointed an Eli Lily CEO (Sidney Taurel)
to the Department of Homeland Security. How the initiative works is simply
to convince more people they need to be on psychiatric medication. The
well- documented dangers inherent with these types of drugs, for obvious
reasons, aren't being discussed in The Wall Street Journal or on ABC News.

It shouldn't surprise you to note that the television
networks and newspapers running stories about ' killer' herbs and vitamins
are chock-full of ads for prescription drugs.

Rudyard Kipling was right… Words are, indeed the
most powerful drug used by mankind… Add newspeak to the mix and what was
healthful has now become "dangerous"… what is inherently toxic has now
become good for you.

Mary Starrett was on television for 21 years
as a news anchor, morning talk show host and medical reporter. For the
last 5 years she hosted a radio program. Mary is a frequent guest on radio
talk shows. E-Mail M123STAR@aol.com

Rudyard Kipling was right… Words
are, indeed the most powerful drug used by mankind… Add newspeak to the
mix and what was healthful has now become "dangerous"… what is inherently
toxic has now become good for you.